Syd Barrett Quotes

I wasn't in the art world at all as a kid; I was just creative, and we were always doing arts and crafts.

And all of this, all these physical aspects of painting at that time excited me very much. You could do a picture in just black and white. I mean all the things, whether you're soliciting permission or not, do give you permission.

Without electricity, there can be no art.

All I care about these days is painting — photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing.

I'm a sponge, the more I absorb, the more I am able to articulate my vision, as artists do, like Picasso. I'm an artist in that light. I went from being an artist to an artiste.

I was an artist, but not a self-proclaimed great artist, just a common man who was working in a form of art which is universal.

Why not spend that time on art: painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils? Are words or numbers more important than images? Who decides this? Does algebra move you to tears? Can plural possessives express the feelings in your heart? If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!

I'm a painter, that's where I started out, at four years old, that was my first love as far as expression. So, I'm not a painter in the sense of, "Please come see my paintings" but, I do understand the value of not looking over the artist's shoulder while the work is in progress.

I've always had a certain fascination. It's basically paint what you know, and this is what I grew up with.

To be an artist, you need to play inside your work.

Making art has never been a mystery to me. It's never been something that's very difficult.

My artistic spirit is not nurtured by blogospheres.

In my previous life, I was an artist. I still paint. I love art.

I do quite a lot of art, with a small 'a'. I guess that is how I was dredged up, with paints and crayons. Even when I was at nursery, I knew instinctively how to mix colours, how to make purple or orange.

I don't want to be a film-maker. I think painting is far more exciting and profound.

And I have exposed myself to art so that my work has something beyond just the usual potter.

Art school can be a wonderful place if you're trying to find your voice and your style and your taste.

I just wanna be a good artist.

I am very much an artist. I like painting and collaging.

I feel mushy these days when I think about art and artists and the work that lies ahead for us. There's good work to be done and there's joy to be found in it, I think.

It's easier and sociabler to talk technique than it is to make art.

You're confusing product with process. Most people, when they criticize, whether they like it or hate it, they're talking about product. That's not art, that's the result of art. Art, to whatever degree we can get a handle on (I'm not sure that we really can) is a process. It begins in the heart and the mind with the eyes and hands.

The fine arts thing at college was always too much for me to think about. What I was more involved in was being successful at arts school.

A distinction is made between artists who work directly from nature and those who work purely from imagination. Neither if these methods should be preferred to the exclusion of the other. Often both are used in turn by the same man.

It is vain for painters... to endeavour to invent without materials on which the mind may work.